How Long Can A Queen Bee Live In A Cage

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There are times when we need to place a queen in a cage. Every extra day in a cage causes damage to the queen, hence people often ask how long can a queen bee live in a cage?

There are a number of reasons why people may put a queen bee in a cage. Here are a few good ones and one bad one.

Why Do We Cage A Queen?

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When introducing a new queen, we have to allow the workers in the new hive to become accustomed to her. If you just drop a queen in a hive she will normally be killed

Introducing A New Queen To A Hive

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Banking queens is a method where you place a whole lot of queens in cages and place these in a hive. The workers can feed the queens through the mesh, but cannot kill them.

Storing A Queen For A Few Days

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Smuggling Bees

There is always some creative clown who decides they want to smuggle bees. People get insanely fascinated with bees and the variety of different types of bees around the world.

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Can Queen Bees Survive In A Cage On Their Own For Long?

No. Queen bees are nutritionally demanding creatures -they have to be fed a lot of food by their attendant retinue of worker bees.

Typically a queen cage has a small plug on one end. We fill this plug with some sort of candy that the bees can chew through with time.

How Do Queens Get Out Of Their Cages In A Hive?

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Multi-Queen Hives

This is an interesting thing we can do with a beehive. There are ways that we can configure a hive such that it contains multiple queens.

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ADVICE

Wild bees often choose nesting sites that are quite close to other beehives. I remember a bee removal I did when I was 19. There was a garden shed with “Some bees” in it.

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